Adam’s Off-The-Wall Demos
New Faculty Join Physics & Astronomy Douglas Bergman
Adam Bolton
Douglas Bergman is interested in all aspects of ground based observations of cosmic rays. He is a member of the Telescope Array collaboration in Delta UT, seeking to measure the spectrum, composition of ultra-high energy cosmic rays and to determine their sources. This experiment detects the cosmic ray air showers both by collect the shower particles as they hit the ground and observing the fluorescence light emitted as they pass through the atmosphere. Prof. Bergman comes to Utah from Rutgers University in NJ, where he was an Assistant Professor, and prior to that a post-doctoral associate. He received his Ph.D. from Yale University in 1997, working on a fixed target, high energy physics experiment at Brookhaven National Lab. He enjoys most outdoor athletic activities including running, skiing, volleyball and soccer. Indoors, he likes all types of live musical performance.
Adam Bolton joins the department in August 2009. His interests are observational cosmology; formation, structure, and evolution of galaxies; and astronomical spectroscopy. He is a founding member of the Sloan Lens ACS (SLACS) Survey collaboration, which has combined SDSS spectra with Hubble Space Telescope images to nearly double the number of known “gravitational lens” galaxies. Dr. Bolton will continue his gravitational lensing research program, and will pursue extensive involvement in the SDSS3 and other massive astronomical spectroscopic surveys. He was employed as the Beatrice Watson Parrent Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Hawaii, and was also a CfA Postdoctoral Fellow at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. He obtained his Ph.D. in physics from MIT in 2005. His outside interests include cooking, music, and economics. He is looking forward to the skiing and hiking opportunities in Utah.
Shanti Deemyad
Inese Ivans
Starting January of 2010, Shanti Deemyad joins the University of Utah from Harvard University, where she completed her postdoc. She received her Ph.D from Washington University in St. Louis. Her main field of interest is condensed matter at extreme conditions. The research would be divided in two major areas; studying the nature of electronic interactions in existing solid state systems such as physics of quantum solids, the second being the synthesis of materials with new or enhanced properties for storage and transport of energy by guidance of high pressure studies. The unifying purpose is to find and explore new exotic states of matter which have strong promises for material engineering. Shanti enjoys a wide variety of activities. She loves stargazing and visiting archeological sites. She loves the mountains and the outdoors. Among other activities she enjoy playing chess, watching Sci-Fi movies and reading books. Her favorite authors are Kundera, Kafka, Hesse and Camus.
Inese Ivans is an observational astronomer. She specializes in the application of stellar spectroscopic tools to investigate topics ranging from the origins of chemical elements in the Universe to the formation and evolution of galaxies, including our own Milky Way. She is interested in developing astronomical applications to exploit large data sets such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey using statistical, data mining, and scientific visualization techniques. She joins the University of Utah in August of this year from Princeton University, where she most recently has held a joint postdoctoral fellowship with the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science. Previously Inese was on a fellowship at the California Institute of Technology, moving there from the University of Texas at Austin where she received her Ph.D. Her undergraduate work at the University of Toronto introduced her to astronomical research, something she is keen to continue here.
Associate Professor bergman@physics.utah.edu
Assistant Professor deemyad@physics.utah.edu
Saveez Saffarian
Assistant Professor saffarian@physics.utah.edu
Starting at the University of Utah as part of the USTAR initiative, in January of 2010, Saveez Saffarian received his PhD from Washington University in St Louis, specializing in fluorescence spectroscopy and single molecule analysis. In the pursuit of his own biological problem, Saveez joined Harvard Medical School where he focused on polymerization of multi-protein complexes on the plasma membrane. During his postdoctoral research, he developed live cell hires methods to visualize clathrin self-assembly. In his lab, Saveez will couple the high-resolution live cell microscopy with cell biological and biochemical assays to follow the assembly of enveloped viruses in both live cells and reconstituted systems. His long-term plan is to understand potent human pathogens like influenza and HIV with molecular detail. Outside the lab, Saveez volunteers his time at his daughter’s school; serving a two-year term on the board of Cambridge Ellis School, a non-profit private school, where she attended. He also enjoys skiing, Sci-Fi and playing chess.
Frank van den Bosch Associate Professor vdbosch@physics.utah.edu
Until January 2009, when he joined the department, Frank was a Leader of Independent Research Group at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy. Frank’s research focusses on the theoretical aspects of cosmology, large scale structure, and galaxy formation. In particular, he’s involved in studying the structure and formation of dark matter haloes, the formation of disk galaxies, the galaxy occupation statistics of dark matter haloes, galaxy lensing, preheating of the IGM by pancake formation, and the bias of galaxies and dark matter haloes.
Spectrum - Summer 2009
Assistant Professor bolton@physics.utah.edu
Assistant Professor iii@physics.utah.edu
Gordon Thomson
J.W. Keuffel Professor of Experimental Astrophysics thomson@physics.utah.edu
Gordon joins the University of Utah in September 2009, as part of the Cosmic Ray research group. He is the first recipient of the Keuffel endowed Chair in Experimental Astrophysics. He received his Bachelors at the Illinois Institute of Technology and both his Masters degree and Ph.D at Harvard University. He was then employed at Rutgers University. In 1999, he spent a year at the University of Utah as a Visiting Scholar. His research areas include AstroParticle Physics, Experimental High Energy Physics, and Particle Physics R&D. He is married with one son, studying at Yale. Gordon and his family are all outdoor enthusiasts.
Michael Vershinin
Assistant Professor vershinin@physics.utah.edu
Dr. Michael Vershinin will start in January 2010 as the first professor in the new BioPhys research program in the department. He has a Bachelor degree in Engineering from Cooper Union, a PhD in Physics from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and additional biologyrelated training from his postdoctoral work at UC: Irvine. His research interests are similarly interdisciplinary and reside at the interface of biology, physics, mathematics, and computer science. Michael is using techniques such as optical trapping to investigate the function of single molecules and molecular complexes. He is also developing methods for better quantifying and modeling biological processes. His current focus is on molecular motors – how things are transported inside of cells, how this transport is regulated and routed and ultimately how it can break down. The latter question is important for understanding many types of cell degeneration and the related diseases (e.g. Alzheimer’s disease and similar dementias).
In each newsletter, Adam Beehler, Lecture Demonstration Specialist, explains one of his demonstrations. This demo won second place at the American Association of Physics Teachers 2009 Summer Meeting in Ann Arbor, MI.
Adam Beehler Lecture Demonstration Specialist beehler@physics.utah.edu
Simple Photoelectric Effect When ultraviolet light, x-rays, or other forms of electromagnetic radiation are shined on certain kinds of matter, electrons can be ejected. This phenomenon is known as the photoelectric effect. It made scientists think about light and other forms of electromagnetic radiation in a whole new way. The peculiar thing about the photoelectric effect is the relationship between the frequency (energy) of the light shined on a piece of metal and the number of electrons ejected. The higher the frequency (energy) of the light source, the more electrons and thus electric current, is given off. Just making the same type of light brighter, or more intense, does not give the ejected electrons any more energy. Demo Albert Einstein’s Nobel Prize winning photoelectric effect has been demonstrated for many years quite effectively, yet now it can be done with simple household items. Past versions used specialized black lights or carbon-arc lamps to show any effect. This version takes advantage of the currently popular germ sanitizer lights, which are much more affordable and portable. It also uses aluminum pop cans instead of zinc plates and Christmas tree tinsel instead of standard electroscopes. Use • Lightly sand one side of your aluminum soda pop can to remove any oxidation/ outer coating. • Rub the PVC pipe with the brown paper. • Slide the pipe across the tinsel. The tinsel should now be negative and the strands repel from each other. • With the tinsel repelling, touch the soda pop can and discharge it. The tinsel should relax. If incoming light has enough energy, electrons will be • Charge the tinsel again with the negatively charged PVC pipe. ejected from the middle. • Move the UV germ sanitizer lamp into position (near, but not touching, the sanded portion of the soda pop can). Nothing should happen. • Turn it on and watch the tinsel slowly relax as the negative charges leave the aluminum. This is the photoelectric effect. The energy of the short-wave UV light is enough to eject electrons from the surface of the aluminum. • Charge the tinsel again with the negatively charged PVC pipe. • This time shield the soda pop can from the UV light with a piece of glass. Nothing should happen. The tinsel should remain charged. Why? The UV light is absorbed (or blocked) by the glass. Now remove the glass and watch the tinsel relax. • Charge the tinsel again with the negatively charged PVC pipe. • This time use the long-wave UV lamp. Nothing should happen. Why? This UV light does not have enough energy (too low a frequency) to eject electrons. • Charge the tinsel again but this time by induction so that the tinsel becomes positive. • Shine the short-wave UV lamp onto the soda pop can. Nothing should happen. Why? The photoelectric effect ejects electrons from the aluminum, and the tinsel and soda pop can already have a deficiency of electrons. You can also view this demo, and a complete materials list, online at www.physics.utah.edu/~beehler/newsletterdemos/demos.html
Spectrum - Summer 2009